Heat Exchange Effectiveness and Pressure Drop for Air Flow Through Perforated Plates With and Without Crosswind

Low-porosity perforated plates are being used as absorbers for heating ambient air in a new type of unglazed solar collector. This paper investigates the convective heat transfer effectiveness for low-speed air flow through thin, isothermal perforated plates with and without a crosswind on the upstream face. The objective of this work is to provide information that will allow designers to optimize hole size and spacing. In order to obtain performance data, a wind tunnel and small lamp array were designed and built. Experimental data were taken for a range of plate porosities from 0.1 to 5 percent, hole Reynolds numbers from 100 to 2000, and wind speeds from 0 to 4 m/s. Correlations were developed for heat exchange effectiveness and also for pressure drop. Infrared thermography was used to visualize the heat transfer taking place at the surface.